3.5 Entering the Age of Space Flight
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for the United States; to carry out a program of scientific exploration of the Moon;
to develop human capability to work in the lunar environment.
With the help of companies like Boeing, North American Rockwell, McDonnell
Douglas, International Business Machines (IBM) and Grumman, the NASA designed
and built the Apollo spacecraft, which could transport a small crew to the Moon and
back again. The Apollo spacecraft is composed of three sections, a Command Module
(CM), a Service Module (SM) and a Lunar Module (LM), of which the compartment
of combining the CM with the SM is also called CSM.
The CM is the cockpit where the astronauts live and works in space flight, the
control center of the spacecraft and the only section of the spacecraft designed to
return to the Earth intactly, with a cone-shaped structure, a height of 3.9 m, a diameter
of 3.9 m at the bottom, and a lift-off weight of 5.6 metric tons. Inside the CM, the
habitable room held a three-astronaut crew is about 5.9 cubic meters while the rest is
dedicated to control panels and displays. The CM is divided into the front cabin, the
crew cabin and the rear cabin. The front cabin is equipped with docking detection
devices, parachute recovery devices and attitude control engines; the crew cabin is
a closed pressurized capsule equipped with necessities and life-saving equipment
for astronauts to live 14 days; the rear cabin is equipped with 10 attitude control
engines, various instruments and fuel tanks, as well as some systems like guidance and
navigation control, telecommunication, stabilization and control, reaction control,
environmental control and Earth landing. At launch, the three astronauts would sit
on a couch that they could later fold and stow away when they entered in space.
The SM adopts light metal honeycomb structure, with a cylindrical shape, a height
of 7.5 m, a diameter of 3.9 m, and a lift-off weight of 23.2 metric tons. Its front end is
connected with the CM, and the rear end is a main engine nozzle. The SM is equipped
with the main engine, attitude control engine group, fuel cells, propellant tanks,
pressurization and electrical devices. The main engine is used for orbit transferring
and maneuvering; the attitude control engine group is composed of 16 small thrust
motors, used for the separation between the spacecraft and the three-stage rocket, the
docking between the LM and the CSM, and the separation between the CM and the
SM; the fuel cells provide the power for most of the crew’s needs during the mission,
but both the SM and the CM also carried batteries to supplement power.
The LM includes two sections, ascent stage and descent stage, with a combinedshape of two prisms, a height of 7.0 m, a width of 4.3 m, and a weight of 15 metric
tons. As the main body of the LM, the ascent stage consists of a two-astronaut
crew compartment, system display and control devices, S-band and radar antennas,
reaction control system, engines and propellant tanks. The descent stage is a support
platform of the LM, and consists of landing deceleration engines, landing gear with
four legs, propellant tanks and instrument cabins. When the spacecraft enters into the
parking orbit around the Moon, the LM is separated from the CSM, the deceleration
engines are started to make it land softly on the surface of the Moon. When the
astronauts complete the scientific investigation tasks on the Moon’s surface and
return to the ascent stage, the descent stage is used as a launch pad for the ascent
engine firing, and left on the original landing position. The ascent stage leaves the
Moon’s surface for the parking orbit to rendezvous and dock with the CMS.
163
for the United States; to carry out a program of scientific exploration of the Moon;
to develop human capability to work in the lunar environment.
With the help of companies like Boeing, North American Rockwell, McDonnell
Douglas, International Business Machines (IBM) and Grumman, the NASA designed
and built the Apollo spacecraft, which could transport a small crew to the Moon and
back again. The Apollo spacecraft is composed of three sections, a Command Module
(CM), a Service Module (SM) and a Lunar Module (LM), of which the compartment
of combining the CM with the SM is also called CSM.
The CM is the cockpit where the astronauts live and works in space flight, the
control center of the spacecraft and the only section of the spacecraft designed to
return to the Earth intactly, with a cone-shaped structure, a height of 3.9 m, a diameter
of 3.9 m at the bottom, and a lift-off weight of 5.6 metric tons. Inside the CM, the
habitable room held a three-astronaut crew is about 5.9 cubic meters while the rest is
dedicated to control panels and displays. The CM is divided into the front cabin, the
crew cabin and the rear cabin. The front cabin is equipped with docking detection
devices, parachute recovery devices and attitude control engines; the crew cabin is
a closed pressurized capsule equipped with necessities and life-saving equipment
for astronauts to live 14 days; the rear cabin is equipped with 10 attitude control
engines, various instruments and fuel tanks, as well as some systems like guidance and
navigation control, telecommunication, stabilization and control, reaction control,
environmental control and Earth landing. At launch, the three astronauts would sit
on a couch that they could later fold and stow away when they entered in space.
The SM adopts light metal honeycomb structure, with a cylindrical shape, a height
of 7.5 m, a diameter of 3.9 m, and a lift-off weight of 23.2 metric tons. Its front end is
connected with the CM, and the rear end is a main engine nozzle. The SM is equipped
with the main engine, attitude control engine group, fuel cells, propellant tanks,
pressurization and electrical devices. The main engine is used for orbit transferring
and maneuvering; the attitude control engine group is composed of 16 small thrust
motors, used for the separation between the spacecraft and the three-stage rocket, the
docking between the LM and the CSM, and the separation between the CM and the
SM; the fuel cells provide the power for most of the crew’s needs during the mission,
but both the SM and the CM also carried batteries to supplement power.
The LM includes two sections, ascent stage and descent stage, with a combinedshape of two prisms, a height of 7.0 m, a width of 4.3 m, and a weight of 15 metric
tons. As the main body of the LM, the ascent stage consists of a two-astronaut
crew compartment, system display and control devices, S-band and radar antennas,
reaction control system, engines and propellant tanks. The descent stage is a support
platform of the LM, and consists of landing deceleration engines, landing gear with
four legs, propellant tanks and instrument cabins. When the spacecraft enters into the
parking orbit around the Moon, the LM is separated from the CSM, the deceleration
engines are started to make it land softly on the surface of the Moon. When the
astronauts complete the scientific investigation tasks on the Moon’s surface and
return to the ascent stage, the descent stage is used as a launch pad for the ascent
engine firing, and left on the original landing position. The ascent stage leaves the
Moon’s surface for the parking orbit to rendezvous and dock with the CMS.